1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to a pouch container and methods for handling pouches and, more particularly, to methods and apparatus for removing pouches from a pouch container.
2. Background Information
A wide variety of pouch handling apparatus are known in the art for performing different actions on empty, unsealed pouches. One class of these apparatus load empty, unsealed pouches into a filling a station, fill the pouches with product, and then seal the pouches. Loading empty, unsealed pouches into the pouch handling apparatus is a problem common to most apparatus. One solution is to require the pouches to be individually loaded by a worker. Although accurate, this method is expensive due to the cost of the worker and the lower throughput of the apparatus. Other apparatus receive empty pouches on pouch wickets. Wicketed pouches may be individually removed from the wicket by partially opening the front pouch and pulling the pouch from the wicket with grippers that pinch the sides or top of the pouch. Drawbacks with wicketed pouches include the cost of providing the pouches on the wicket and the waste generated when the flange having the wicket holes is discarded after the pouch is sealed. Pouch handling apparatus that avoid the waste of wicket flanges include those that receive empty, unsealed pouches in simple stacks held in a pouch magazine. Although these pouches are easy to provide and easy to load, those skilled in the art have been challenged by making reliable automated pouch removable mechanisms. Stacked pouches have a tendency to cling to one another (static electricity forces and/or intermolecular attractions) thus requiring mechanisms that overcome the problem of grabbing a single pouch instead of a plurality of pouches. Various prior art solutions exist for this problem. Another problem with using stacks of pouches is the hassle of loading the pouch stacks into the pouch magazine. The worker loading the pouches into the apparatus can load them the wrong way, skew the stacks, or drop portions of the pouches on the floor. Manual loading increases the chances of the pouches becoming contaminated. The art thus desires a more efficient manner of loading stacks of pouches into a pouch handling apparatus.